novaguy30

I've gotten dinged twice in the last week now that I keep a closer eye on my rating since it is now prominently displayed. Just for background -- i'm 100% no problems on my trips -- waiting for them on-time, nonchalant talk etc, no detours, etc etc. Once i get to my destination, I typically do certain things etc and will rate AND tip the uber driver later in the day. I've now noticed that my ratings have gone down twice when I did this. Do the uber drivers presume I wasnt going to tip them? Now do I need to be proactive and tip them immediately once i get to my destination (which is just ridiculous)?

kb9522

No. They don't know if you tipped or not, or how much if you did.

Possibly another case of 5 for 5. If you don't bribe them in cash, they resort to petty things like this.

joe_miami

They obviously know if you tipped. There's a clear pattern of sub-5 ratings for people who don't immediately tip when the ride is over.

As for the OP, feeling compelled to tip is rewarding this bad behavior. I'd rather see my rating drop into the 3s than be extorted into tipping because of nonsense like this. If riders push back, Uber will react.

Uber drivers should only be able to rate a rider within 2 minutes of the ride ending.

Points Scrounger

As I understand it, they must rate the outgoing passenger before they're allowed to accept the next fare.

joe_miami

If true, they're still allowed to go back in and change the rating as much as a week later, which defeats the purpose of that requirement.

Astrophsx

This is based off of what, your opinion? As far as I've read through the information put out by Uber through the media, drivers can see which routes they were tipped on... not which riders.

Just going to poke some holes in your theory, as you aren't providing any evidence to back what you are saying. I take 80+ uber rides a month and almost never get matched with the same driver.

So what are the odds that:

A) Each driver reviews all the routes that were tipped, takes the time to search through the numerous rides they got that day, find all the routes that didn't tip, then change the rating for the passenger.

B) That a majority of drivers do the above mentioned since the odds of getting the same passenger in a big city are slim.

In no way are you being extorted to tip. That is a baseless and ridiculous claim. Feeling compelled to tip may come from great service (especially compared to that of taking a taxi which is much more expensive and typically a much worse experience) or the fact that Uber does not charge enough for their rides in some markets in order to prevent other ride share services like Lyft to take over that market.. This is where the riders win and the drivers lose. If drivers start to leave in masses then the riders will eventually lose. So by tipping, perhaps you do it in order for the service to sustain itself or you don't want to be left with people who are the bottom of the barrel drivers that perhaps can't keep any other type of job.

alanslegal

As a driver, I read about this a few weeks ago (here on FT) that you can go back and re-rate a rider (never ever knew such a thing existed before hand or even if its true as I have never even thought about re-rating anyone) .... but why would any driver do so anyway? By the time they log in, do what they need to rightly or wrongly and waste a few minutes of their life that they won't get back, or a few minutes that could have picked up their next ride .... then it sounds pretty silly use of time imo.

joe_miami

Let me guess: Uber driver?

joe_miami

I already explained why drivers do it, in this thread or another one: As retaliation for not tipping or retaliation for reporting any type of scam.

I got overcharged by over 100% on the only Uber ride I've taken in the past 5 weeks, by a driver who seems to run scams on airport runs. I reported it to Uber, and less than an hour later, my Uber rating had dropped by almost a quarter of a point. That wasn't a coincidence. The driver obviously went back in and gave me 1 star.

Astrophsx

No, I am a rider.

The information you are giving is baseless, uninformed, and just plain wrong. How many rides have you taken to where your score dropped 1/4 of a point from one rating?

joe_miami

LOL. Nothing I have posted is the least bit "baseless, uninformed, [or] just plain wrong."

Drivers can change ratings well after the fact. Basic fact, as admitted by an Uber driver here earlier today.

You might take "80+ Uber rides per month," but not everyone does. For people who use Uber a couple times per month, one 1-star rating from a scammer driver does a lot of damage.

Astrophsx

Does a lot of damage? LOL First, it indicates how infrequently you use the service. Second, what damage does having a score go down .25 do? If you are hardly using Uber please tell me what noticeable effect it will have to you as a rider?

I will point out your baseless and uninformed comments.

They don't "obviously" know if you did or did not tip. They have to wait till the end of the day from the information I've read to see which ROUTES tipped. Then they have to match up all the non-tipping routes and take the time to rate them lower.

There is also no clear pattern of sub-5 star ratings for people who don't tip.



So now you are including changing the score after being reported. You base this off of one anecdotal experience.

joe_miami

Yes, "does a lot of damage." The 4.7 threshold seems to be something of a magic number for Uber, so having one's score tank from 4.9 to 4.7 because of a scammer is damaging.

Yes, there is. The internet is chock full of reports of people reporting their Uber ratings dropped after tipping was implemented.

Huh? My score dropped an hour after I reported being massively overcharged on the only Uber ride I had taken in the past 5 weeks. I'm supposed to pretend this was a coincidence, and that some other driver from months ago decided to re-rate me as 1-star just for goofs? LOL.

Astrophsx

This is based off of nothing other than your personal opinion. Having lower than a 4.7 threshold does what other than hurt your emotions and ego?

It would be highly time consuming (time which they don't get paid for), taking the time to do this for every rider who doesn't tip would be pointless as a 1 star rating on a passenger has very little impact as riding is not a career choice and you have to have a fairly low rider score for Uber to cut you off from the app, and finally giving a 1 star ride due to lack of tip is pointless as the rider has no idea they were given 1 star from not tipping so it wouldn't change their habit.

It is an uninformed comment as you seem to think having a 4.7 passenger rating has a negative impact on a rider and that a majority of Uber drivers do this. I'm sure there a few odd people that might be grumpy old men who have nothing but time to waste to worry about giving ratings on Uber.

Most of these "reports" came from before Uber had tipping in the app. A driver knew you didn't tip because you had to in cash, whereas now you can do it digitally and they aren't informed who tipped them... only the routes.

It might be a different story if you said the internet was "chalk full" of drivers recently posting that at the end of the day they sit down for 30 minutes and re-score every route who didn't tip a 1 star.

joe_miami

Man, for someone who claims not to be an Uber driver, you sure are passionate about defending the worst of Uber.

I guess we’re supposed to believe Uber ratings are meaningless, despite countless reports of people canceling on drivers lower than 4.7 and vice versa, just because you say so.